Meir Litvak was appointed as the director of the Center for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University in October 2010. He co-organized a joint conference on "The Heritage of the Past and the Challenges of the Future: The Jews of Iran," in January 2010, sponsored by the Center for Iranian Studies and Beit Hatfutsot: The Museum of the Jewish People. At that conference, he delivered a paper on "The Iranian Religious Establishment – Ideology and Power." Litavk presented a paper on "Iranian Anti-Semitism: Continuities and Changes," at a conference on "Global Antisemitism: A Crisis of Modernity," held at Yale University in August 2010. He spoke on "Anti-Semitism in Iran and Holocaust Denial," at a conference on Antisemitism and the Phenomenon of Holocaust Denial, organized by Trinity College and University College in Dublin, during November 2010. In March, Litvak lectured on "'We Seek Death': Martyrdom in the Ideology of Hamas," at a conference on "The Middle East in Transition," organized by Hebrew University's Truman Institute.  In June 2010, Litvak spoke on Sunni-Shi'i relations in "Religion and Self-Determination," at Princeton University's Liechtenstein Institute of Self-Determination, in Vienna. That same month, he delivered a paper on "The Islamic Republic of Iran: Between Ideological Constraints and the Needs of the Modern State," at a conference on "Religion and the Nation-State," organized by The Israeli Democracy Institute.

 Litvak published, together with Esther Webman, "Israel and the World," in Albert Lindemann and Richard Levy (eds.), Anti-Semitism: A History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010). He wrote the entry "Karbala," in Encyclopaedia Iranica.

For the third year in a row, Prof. Litvak received a research grant from the Israel Science Foundation for his ongoing research on "Isfahan and Mashhad: From Reza Shah to Mossaddeq, 1921-1953."

email: litvak@post.tau.ac.il

Books

with Moshe Aharonov, Iran: From a Persian Empire to an Islamic Revolution (forthcoming, in Hebrew).

with Esther Webman, From Empathy to Denial: Arab Responses to the Holocaust (2009).

Editor, Palestinian Collective Memory and National Identity (New York: Palgrave-McMillan, 2009).

Editor, Middle Eastern Societies and the West: Accommodation or Clash of Civilizations? (Tel Aviv: Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies, 2007).

Editor, with Ora Limor, Religious Fanaticism (Jerusalem: Zalman Shazar Center, 2007, in Hebrew).

with Esther Webman, Arab Representations of the Holocaust: An Obstacle to Peace? (2006, in Hebrew).

Shi'i Scholars in 19th Century Iraq: The Shi`i `Ulama of Najaf and Karbala (1998).

Editor, Islam and Democracy in the Arab World (Tel Aviv: Ha-Kibutz ha-Meuchad, 1997 in Hebrew).

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Journal Articles

"‘Martyrdom is Life’: Jihad and Martyrdom in the Ideology of Hamas," Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Vol. 33, No. 8 (2010), pp. 716-734.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran and the Holocaust: Anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism," Journal of Israeli History, Vol. 25 (2006), pp. 245-266.

with Joshua Teitelbaum, “Edward Said’s Orientalism: Some Methodological Comments,” Ha-Mizrah He-Hadash Vol. 45 (2005), pp. 5-22. An English version, published as "Students, Teachers, and Edward Said: Taking Stock of Orientalism," The Middle East Review of International Affairs, Vol. 10 (March 2006).

“Slavery [to God] is Freedom: Modern Islamic Concepts of Liberty” Historia No. 16 (2005), pp. 55-80 (in Hebrew). [Published also in Religious Fanaticism, 2007].

"The Anti-Semitism of Hamas," Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics and Culture, Vol. 12 Nos. 2+3 (2005), pp. 41-47.

“Iran and Israel: The Ideological Enmity and its Roots,” Iyunim be-Tkumat Yisrael Vol. 14 (2004), pp. 367-392 (in Hebrew).

with Esther Webman, “The Representation of the Holocaust in the Arab World,” Journal of Israeli History: Special Issue, After Eichmann: Collective Memory and the Holocaust since 1961 Vol. 23 No. 1 (Spring 2004), pp. 100-115.

With Esther Webman, "Perceptions of the Holocaust in Palestinian Public Discourse," Israel Studies, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Fall 2003). Also available through Project Muse.

“Money, Religion and Politics: The Oudh Bequest in Najaf and Karbala’, 1850-1903” International Journal of Middle East Studies Vol. 33 No. 1 (February 2001), pp. 1-21.

“The Rule of the Jurist (Velayat-e Faqih) in Iran: Ideal and Implementation,” Ha-Mizrah He-Hadash, Vol. 42 (2001, in Hebrew), pp. 167-184.

“Failed Manipulation: The British, the Oudh Bequest and the Shi`i Ulama’ of Najaf and Karbala,” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies Vol. 27 No. 1 (2000), pp. 68-89.

"The Finances of the `Ulama’ Communities of Najaf and Karbala' in the Nineteenth Century," Die Welt des Islams,Vol. 40 No. 1 (2000), pp. 41-66.

"The Islamization of the Israeli-Arab Conflict: The Case of Hamas," Middle Eastern Studies Vol. 23 No. 1 (1998), pp. 148-163.

"Palestinian Nationalism and Islam: The Case of Hamas," Nationalism and Ethnic Politics Vol. 2 No. 4 (Winter 1996), pp. 500-522.

"The Shi`ite ^cUlama' of Najaf and Karbala' and the Ottoman Tanzimat," The Harvard  Middle Eastern and Islamic Review 4 (Spring 1995), pp. 72-88.

"A Palestinian Past: National Construction and Reconstruction," History and Memory Vol. 6 No. 2 (Fall/Winter 1994), pp. 24-56. Also published in German in Sozialwissenschaflische Informationen Vol. 23 No. 2 (April-June 1994).

"Palestinian Leadership in the West Bank during the Intifada, 1987-1992," Orient Vol. 34, No. 2 (July 1993), pp. 199-220.

"Continuity and Change in the `Ulama Population of Najaf and Karbala, 1791-1904: A Socio-Demographic Study," Iranian Studies Vol. 23 (1990), pp. 31-60.

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Chapters in Books

"Introduction," in Litvak (ed.), Palestinian Collective Memory and National Identity (New York: Palgrave-McMillan, 2009), pp. 1-39.

"Constructing a National Past: The Palestinian Case," in Litvak (ed.), Palestinian Collective Memory and National Identity (New York: Palgrave-McMillan, 2009), pp. 157-238.

"Democracy and Islam: The Clerical Debate in Contemporary Iran," in Joshua Teitelbaum (ed.), Political Liberalization in the Gulf (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2009), pp. 271-301.

 "`More harmful than the Jews': anti-Shi`i polemics in modern radical Sunni discourse, in Le shi`isme imamite quarante ans après: Hommage à Etan Kohlberg, eds. Muhammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, Meir M. Bar-Asher and Simon Hopkins, (Paris 2008), pp. 285-306

with Ora Limor, "Introduction," in Religious Fanaticism (Jerusalem: Zalman Shazar Center, 2007, in Hebrew), pp. 11-26.

"Introduction," in Meir Litvak (ed.), Middle Eastern Societies and the West: Accommodation or Clash of Civilizations? (Tel Aviv: Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies, 2007), pp. 11-32.

"Islamic Democracy vs. Western Democracy: The Debate Among Islamists," in Middle Eastern Societies and the West Accommodation or Clash of Civilizations? (Tel Aviv: Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies, 2007), pp. 199-220.

“Religious and National Fanaticism: the case of Hamas,” in Matthew Hughes and Gaynor Johnson (eds.), Fanaticism and Conflict in the Modern Age (London: Frank Cass, 2005), pp. 155-174.

"Iran's Rebellious Youth," in Tamar Yegnes ed., The Middle East:The Impact of  Generational Change (Tel Aviv: Dayan Center, 2005 in Hebrew), pp. 95-108.

“Students and Teachers in Nineteenth Century Najaf and Karbala'” in Ami Ayalon and David Wasserstein (eds.) Madrasa: Education, Religion and the State in the Middle East (Tel Aviv: Moshe Dayan Center, 2004 in Hebrew), pp. 129-146.

"Fundamentalist Islam and the Women Question: Puritanism and Politics," in Women in the Middle East: Between Tradition and Change Ofra Bengio (ed.), Dayan Center Papers, # 134 (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 2004, in Hebrew), pp. 41-51.

(with Bruce Maddy-Weitzman), “Islamism and the State in North Africa,” in Barry Rubin (ed.), Revolutionaries and Reformers: Contemporary Islamist Movements in the Middle East (Albany: SUNY Press, 2003), pp. 69-90.

“Madrasa and Learning in Nineteenth Century Najaf and Karbala,” in W. Ende and R. Brunner (eds.), Twelver Shi’ism in Modern Times: Religious Culture and Political History (Leiden: Brill, 2000), pp. 58-78.

"A Minority which is also a Majority: The Shi`i `Ulama’ in Iraq during the 19th and 20th Centuries," in Shulamit Volkov et al. (eds.), Minorities, Foreigners and Outsiders (Jerusalem: The Zalman Shazar Center, 2000, in Hebrew), pp. 221-242.

"Introduction," in Meir Litvak (ed.), Islam and Democracy in the Arab World (Tel Aviv: Ha-Kibutz ha-Meuchad, 1998 in Hebrew), pp. 9-23.

"Hamas: Islam, Palestinian Identity and Jihad," in Meir Litvak (ed.), Islam and Democracy in the Arab World (Tel Aviv: Ha-Kibutz ha-Meuchad, 1998 in Hebrew), pp. 147-179.

"Islamist Movements and Democracy: the Historiographical Debate," in Meir Litvak (ed.), Islam and Democracy in the Arab World (Tel Aviv: Ha-Kisbutz ha-Meuchad, 1998 in Hebrew), pp. 236-251.

"Inside Versus Outside: The Challenge of the Local Leadership, 1967-1994," in Avraham Sela ed. The PLO and Israel, 1964-1994: From Armed Struggle to Accommodation (New York: St. Martin Press, 1997), pp. 171-196.

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